The
Berkeley Community Theatre The theatre has 3,500 seats
and is the home of the NorCal 4/41 Wurlitzer pipe organ. The stage is fully
equipped and the projection booth has two variable speed arc light projectors which can
show both silent and sound films at the correct speed. It also is equipped with two Strong
Super Trooper arc follow spots. After the Loma Prieta earthquake,
it was the first theatre in the Bay area to be authorized to open. The organ chambers
are above the proscenium arch. The floor of the chambers is about 55' above
the stage floor. The chambers speak through a tone chute and a metal
grill. Unenclosed in the tone chute are the chimes, the marimba/harp, the
chrysoglot/vibra-harp, a 25 note set of tuned saucer bells, the master
xylophone, tuned sleigh bells, a 40" bass drum, a military field drum (a large snare drum),
a tap cymbal, a hi-hat cymbal and a fire bell. Just below the tone chute
and under the chambers are the house public address speakers. Located at
this level are the 8' and 16' Tibia Plenas, the piano, an ah-ooh-gah horn and an air raid siren.

The
Center Theatre Console The Center Theatre was a separate
theatre which was built as part of the Radio City complex in New York.
The Wurlitzer organ in it was Opus 2178. The console is almost the same
as the one in the Radio City Music Hall. The top stop rail was not filled
out and the console had a wood finish instead of being Steinway black.
During refinishing it was found that the walnut finish was not natural.
The veneer is actually rosewood which was finished to look like walnut.
The rosewood finish has been restored. The console has 364 stop tabs and
the tab action is pneumatic. The refurbished console was premiered at the
Berkeley Community Theatre on October 29, 2000 by Jonas Nordwall. Click
on the picture for a whole page of pictures.

The
Toledo Console The Toledo Paramount Wurlitzer organ,
style Publix I, opus 2006, was the basis for the organ at Berkeley.
This is the Toledo console which has been re-specified to control 33 ranks
of pipes. The stop rails have been filled out and there are pull-outs
on both sides of the console. The stop tab actions are still pneumatically
controlled.

The Solo Chamber at Berkeley There are currently 18 ranks
of pipes situated on three manual chests in the Solo.
The 16' offsets in the
Solo are the Solo Tibia, Solo String, Oboe Horn, Diaphonic Horn (Horn Diapason,
metal) and Post Horn.

The Main Chamber at Berkeley There are currently 16 ranks
of pipes situated on three manual chests in the Main. The 16' offsets in
the Main are the Main Tibia, Gross Gamba, Tuba Profunda (Tuba Horn), and
Clarinet.

The Perfound (center) Chamber at Berkeley There are currently 7 ranks of pipes situated on
two three-rank and one one-rank manual chest in the Perfound.
There is a percussion
tower in one part of the chamber, next to the shades, with the Toy Counter
on top, the Glockenspiel below that, and a 49 note Xylophone below that.
There are also a large Chinese Gong (see pictures), a Malaysian Cymbal,
a Ship's Bell, a Surf machine, and a Sand Block machine on the tower. Also
in the chamber are the 16' offsets for the Bombard (Tuba Mirabilis), Wood
Diaphone, Tuba Diaphone (large metal diaphone used as an extension to the
Open Diapason) and the Bourdon. The 8' and 16' Tibia Plena are unenclosed and located
one level below the chambers. The 32' Wood Diaphone is unenclosed and located
on the back wall of the stage house.
The Tibia Plena is on the one-rank chest. The other manual ranks located in
the Perfound are Musette, Lieblich
Flute, Cor Anglais, Viola Diapason (to 16'), French Horn, and Trombe (to 16').
The Viola Diapason and Tombe 16' offsets are not yet installed.

The
32' Diaphones These are located on the back wall of
the stage house. The platform on which they are mounted is actually
a wide walkway which runs around the sides and back of the stage house
about 35' above the stage floor. Although these are the smallest scale
Wurlitzer built they are very successful. The all the walls and the ceiling
of the stage house are
concrete and the stage house acts like a bass reflex speaker enclosure
speaking into the house. The unique feature of these pipes is that there
are six pipes for twelve notes. If you look at the top of each pipe, you
will notice a trap door at the top of the pipe. This is activated,
via a steel cable, by a large pneumatic mounted on the pipe about 8' off
the floor. With the door closed you get one note, with it open you get
the note a half step up. Because we are so far from the main wind
lines and would have had to pierce a fire wall, we installed a separate
blower and two regulators next to the pipes. One regulator is for
the pipes and the other is for the pneumatics which run the trap door.
The resonator of the low C/C# pipe weighs about 800 pounds.

Swell
Shutters The first picture was taken inside the chambers
before we had erected any of the manual chests. The second picture
of the swell shutters was taken from out in the tone chute. After
the entire organ was installed and playing we found that it sounded muffled.
After several years it was decided to completely redesign the swell shutters.
The new design has the shutters mounted horizontally instead of vertically.
We also ran the shutters all the way to the floor of the chamber.
The redesign increased the swell opening by more than 70 percent.
It also aimed the sound down toward the grill instead of toward the side
walls of the tone chute. The third picture shows the openings with
most of the blades removed and the lath and plaster wall on the bottom
removed. The cables you see hanging are the cables which go to all
the chambers. They were in a trough at the bottom of the old shutter assemblies.
We erected the new assemblies at stage level. We tested the actions with
wind and power. We then disassembled them, moved the parts up to
the tone chute piece by piece, and reassembled them. The fourth picture is the assembly
for the Main at stage level. The one for the Solo looks just like it.
The one for the Perfound has an addition section in the center which is
about 5' long. You can see the swell motors at each end mounted vertically.
The original shutters were all 5' high. The assemblies in the Main and
Solo were 16' wide each and the Perfound was 21' wide. The widths of the
new assemblies are the same, but they are now 10' high. There originally
were 77 5' blades, now there are 90 8' blades plus 15 5' blades.
The blades also open further in the new assemblies.

The
Organ Arrives These were taken in 1986 when the organ
was unloaded from the semi and a panel truck and brought onto the stage in the theatre.

Back
Stage This is a photo from the Berkeley Community
Theatre archives. The back wall of the stage house is to the right.
About half way up the picture you can see a horizontal black line.
That is the balcony on which the 32' Diaphones are mounted. It is
approximately 32' off the stage floor. For those with dance experience,
the stage is a "sprung" stage.

Hope
Jones This is a genuine Hope-Jones weight. It
is about 18" long and weighs 25 pounds. The chest it is sitting on is in
the Solo and is part of the 8' offset of the Tuba Mirabilis.